Steven M. Sipple: Husker I-backs should be focus Saturday
Nebraska football fans’ romance with quarterback Sam Keller commences in earnest Saturday. Stand back. This could get hot and heavy rather quickly.
But excuse me while I fixate on the Husker I-backs and dissect some comments Keller made this week. He twice left out the I-backs as he discussed areas that make him most confident about NU’s offense.
“What makes it better (for me) are the wideouts and offensive linemen — they consistently operate at a high level,” Keller said.
Hmmm. What about Marlon Lucky and Cody Glenn?
If you had to identify the most pressing concern out of Nebraska’s preseason camp, it would be the current health, overall durability and general effectiveness of the only veteran I-backs on the roster.
If at least one of those two guys fails to pick up large chunks of yardage today against Nevada, you probably can forget about either of them managing to gain even modest chunks against, say, Southern California and Texas — a scenario that would severely hamper Nebraska’s bid to finally earn that breakthrough victory the program so hungers to achieve.
Glenn essentially has been listed “day-to-day” since last November, lately because of a hamstring, previously because of a throbbing right foot. Will Glenn become a consistent weapon this year? I’ll believe it when I see it.
Lucky missed nearly half of preseason camp after suffering a mild concussion, but he has seemed OK for the past several days. Nebraska badly needs Lucky and/or Glenn to take his game to another level, if only because of a popular football axiom: In order to win championships, teams generally must run the ball effectively as well as stop the run.
To claim progress under fourth-year coach Bill Callahan this season, Nebraska at the very least must capture the Big 12 North in convincing fashion. The Huskers then could significantly improve their standard in the industry by capturing their first Big 12 championship since 1999 and showing well in the BCS. Now, that would be a breakthrough.
Nebraska showed last season it might be on the cusp of breaking through. The Huskers’ balance on offense — they averaged 244.1 yards passing and 170.5 rushing — was critical to their success.
Can Nebraska achieve similar balance this season? Does it matter? Maybe that aforementioned postulate about running the ball and stopping the run is just bluster and outdated gridiron chatter from aging guys like me who are stuck in the past.
Or maybe there’s really something to it.
“It’s real important when you pride yourself on being balanced 50-50 offensively,” Nebraska offensive coordinator Shawn Watson said of the run game. “If you’re one-dimensional, you’re going to get stopped somewhere along the way.”
In other words, you can win some games without a reliable running game — sometimes a lot of games — but you’ll be hard-pressed to win championships. Does Nebraska want to be like Texas Tech and Purdue? Those teams sling the ball around the field and win a lot of games, but not championships.
Nebraska averaged a meager 73.5 rushing yards against four top-10 teams last season, including the Trojans and Longhorns. The Huskers’ four-man I-back committee from 2006 has since been pared to two — juniors Lucky and Glenn. Can they cut it?
Lucky stands atop the depth chart. He’s the man now. He likes being the man. He moped at times in last season’s four-man rotation. Now it’s time for him to run like a man.
He looked OK in the Cotton Bowl. He was OK in the Spring Game. Nebraska needs him to be better than OK. The Huskers need him to consistently find the right creases on stretch plays and bolt through them with abandon. Same goes for Glenn.
Nebraska would next turn to true freshmen Quentin Castille and Roy Helu. Don’t be surprised if at least one of the young backs runs wild today. But beating Nevada with freshmen in the backfield is one thing; taking down USC and Texas is a man’s job.
Make no mistake, Nebraska has plenty of battle-tested men playing defense. The Blackshirts were especially strong down the stretch last season and look poised to move to another level this year with a veteran linebacker crew and a deeper (and probably much better) secondary.
Nebraska’s special teams appear to be upgraded in key areas, most notably place-kicker.
Offensive line? Check.
Wide receivers? Check.
Quarterback? Check.
Nebraska fans are practically salivating as they wait to check out Keller attacking down field.
I-backs? Check back with me after the USC game.
Reach Steven M. Sipple at 473-7440 or ssipple@journalstar.com.
But excuse me while I fixate on the Husker I-backs and dissect some comments Keller made this week. He twice left out the I-backs as he discussed areas that make him most confident about NU’s offense.
“What makes it better (for me) are the wideouts and offensive linemen — they consistently operate at a high level,” Keller said.
Hmmm. What about Marlon Lucky and Cody Glenn?
If you had to identify the most pressing concern out of Nebraska’s preseason camp, it would be the current health, overall durability and general effectiveness of the only veteran I-backs on the roster.
If at least one of those two guys fails to pick up large chunks of yardage today against Nevada, you probably can forget about either of them managing to gain even modest chunks against, say, Southern California and Texas — a scenario that would severely hamper Nebraska’s bid to finally earn that breakthrough victory the program so hungers to achieve.
Glenn essentially has been listed “day-to-day” since last November, lately because of a hamstring, previously because of a throbbing right foot. Will Glenn become a consistent weapon this year? I’ll believe it when I see it.
Lucky missed nearly half of preseason camp after suffering a mild concussion, but he has seemed OK for the past several days. Nebraska badly needs Lucky and/or Glenn to take his game to another level, if only because of a popular football axiom: In order to win championships, teams generally must run the ball effectively as well as stop the run.
To claim progress under fourth-year coach Bill Callahan this season, Nebraska at the very least must capture the Big 12 North in convincing fashion. The Huskers then could significantly improve their standard in the industry by capturing their first Big 12 championship since 1999 and showing well in the BCS. Now, that would be a breakthrough.
Nebraska showed last season it might be on the cusp of breaking through. The Huskers’ balance on offense — they averaged 244.1 yards passing and 170.5 rushing — was critical to their success.
Can Nebraska achieve similar balance this season? Does it matter? Maybe that aforementioned postulate about running the ball and stopping the run is just bluster and outdated gridiron chatter from aging guys like me who are stuck in the past.
Or maybe there’s really something to it.
“It’s real important when you pride yourself on being balanced 50-50 offensively,” Nebraska offensive coordinator Shawn Watson said of the run game. “If you’re one-dimensional, you’re going to get stopped somewhere along the way.”
In other words, you can win some games without a reliable running game — sometimes a lot of games — but you’ll be hard-pressed to win championships. Does Nebraska want to be like Texas Tech and Purdue? Those teams sling the ball around the field and win a lot of games, but not championships.
Nebraska averaged a meager 73.5 rushing yards against four top-10 teams last season, including the Trojans and Longhorns. The Huskers’ four-man I-back committee from 2006 has since been pared to two — juniors Lucky and Glenn. Can they cut it?
Lucky stands atop the depth chart. He’s the man now. He likes being the man. He moped at times in last season’s four-man rotation. Now it’s time for him to run like a man.
He looked OK in the Cotton Bowl. He was OK in the Spring Game. Nebraska needs him to be better than OK. The Huskers need him to consistently find the right creases on stretch plays and bolt through them with abandon. Same goes for Glenn.
Nebraska would next turn to true freshmen Quentin Castille and Roy Helu. Don’t be surprised if at least one of the young backs runs wild today. But beating Nevada with freshmen in the backfield is one thing; taking down USC and Texas is a man’s job.
Make no mistake, Nebraska has plenty of battle-tested men playing defense. The Blackshirts were especially strong down the stretch last season and look poised to move to another level this year with a veteran linebacker crew and a deeper (and probably much better) secondary.
Nebraska’s special teams appear to be upgraded in key areas, most notably place-kicker.
Offensive line? Check.
Wide receivers? Check.
Quarterback? Check.
Nebraska fans are practically salivating as they wait to check out Keller attacking down field.
I-backs? Check back with me after the USC game.
Reach Steven M. Sipple at 473-7440 or ssipple@journalstar.com.
Copyright © 2002-2008 Lincoln Journal Star. All rights reserved.